HomeBoy

Well duh! I've just been informed that Ken Salter has not disappeared but is back (as of March 2008) with a sequel to FSAutoStart called AlacrityPC. Where the heck have I been? Sheesh! I've looked at the user manual and it looks really good but haven't tried it out yet. It truly is a sequel to FSAutoStart but provides some automatic configuration, ties directly into Black Viper's web site, and supports Vista. I can't wait to try it out. The basics of my configuration guide are not exactly obsolete though all references to FSAutoStart certainly are. Expect an updated guide soon. I certainly recommend trying AlacrityPC as it looks to be everything FSAutoStart is and more. Nice to know Ken is still around. This is as good a free program as you'll ever find. Ken's web site: http://alacritypc.kensalter.com/ BTW, his site has a "Donate" button. I always wanted to donate for FSAutoStart but his link had been broken for a long time. Once I'm sure AlacrityPC is going to work out as I'm sure it will, I'm planning to drop $20 in his account for his hard work. I hope you may follow suit. It really is worth it! Regards -mark

Maybe you should read the TrackIR Setup Guide

My original plan was to do that. However, when I looked at my list, it consisted of two parts. The first part is the OS services which Black Viper deals with very well. The other part is programs that are going to be different on everybody's machine. For example, I have services for my UPS, sound card things (volume control, sound console, etc.), various services dealing with my video card and particular monitor type. Then there are services that are unique to my motherboard. None of those are anything that would probably help you much. It's not as daunting as it may sound though. Just work through Viper's "safe" list and that will cover the OS stuff. As for the others, set them all to "stop & restart" (except for ones you know you don't want to lose like UPS, etc.) and see what happens. Turn them back on one by one as needed. It's really not that bad. Worth it too. You'll have you a lean and mean machine when you're all done. You'll be able to brag to all the other folks on your block saying to them "My PC can beat up your PC!" Good luck. Let us know how you do. (How many processes you started out with and how many you end up with). BTW, that little TrackIR priority trick really works too. You outta give that a go as well.

Here's another guide. This one describes how to use FSAutoStart to suspend programs and services from running while gaming. I have successfully trimmed my running processes down from about 55 to 28 while the game is running. Makes a huge difference.

I absolutely loathed the DH2 in the RB3D days. It was stupid looking, slow as molasses, horrible to drive, and fodder for anything with a gun, maybe even a rock (just finished watching Braveheart on TV ). Ok, I've made a rule for myself that I am not going to start a campaign (I've started one twice now and quit for several reasons, mostly technical problems) for two months while I play QC exclusively and spend at least an hour or two in every plane in the game. Naturally I started with the D7 so I could build up some positive encouragement while I'm getting used to things. That was a blast! After that, I thought "I should just get this DH2 bathtub thing out of the way now while I'm in such a good mood." I gotta tell you, this thing is a hoot! Now, I don't mean to dis RB3D here. It's just that it's 2009 and that was 1999. The main difference (besides the truly beautiful graphics) is TrackIR and a honest-to-goodness rudder axis. I had rudder pedals back then but RB3D did not support a rudder axis so you had to configure your pedals to send out the keeboard commands for left and right rudder. That was most inadequate! Force feedback makes a huge difference in this game too as you can stay right on the edge as the rattle lets you know just where that edge is! Fantastic! The key to flying the DH2 (IMHO all the WW1 birds for that matter, especially the early ones) is good rudder control. In fact, my observation has been that rudder gets more and more important the further back you go in time. When I fly the F-15 in LockOn, I hardly touch the rudder at all, a little more in the P-51D Mustang, and almost constantly in the WW1 crates. I was excited when I read a confirmation of that in Wolfgang Langewiesche's "Stick And Rudder." Gosh I'm such a nerd! I built a QC dogfight with a DH2 late model and a wingman going against five Alb II's (veterans). I crashed on take-off a couple of times, spun it into the ground more than a couple of times, and got shot down more times than that. I am so good now at creating a new pilot, I don't even have to look at the screen while I'm doing it! With each flight, I got more and more hooked. This thing is really fun! To stay on the "edge", you have got to coordinate rudder just right and pay very close attention to attitude, airspeed, etc. It requires total concentration and all the piloting skills I have and then some! When I finally got away to take a break, I told my wife "This DH2 is more like real flying than anything I've done in years!" She just gave me that blank look of course, but I digress. Eventually, I had a flight where my wingman and I cleared the skies of nasty Albs and I was in a pool of sweat. I had to take a break a few minutes and towel off! BTW, I believe this is the best AI I have played against in a computer game. I have been playing Aces High for some ten years now playing against other humans so I haven't faced AI all that much. However, I have played games where the developers, probably sensitive to all the crap they get about how bad the AI is, make them so hard that they do all this quite impossible stuff (magic turns, zoom climbs, etc) and you can't beat them. My hat's off to the OFF guys for a super job on these AI. I haven't seen them do anything impossible yet. I do laugh though at how they want to stand on their tail and how easily they fall for the scissors and being jinked into hitting the ground. But heh, that's pretty impressive to get AI good enough that they put up the kind of fight they do. I think the AI is even better in 1.30 though I still prefer fighting veterans over aces as they seem to do fewer stupid things, especially at low altitude. (I tend to fly five feet off the deck.) Man, I'm really rambling, sorry about that. I'll quit now. More reports to come. I am really getting hooked on this game! -hb

Thanks for spotting that. I've fixed it. Also, the idea of getting rid of the cfs3 commands is under consideration. I mainly left them in there as I was afraid if I deleted them all, people would tell me some were also OFF commands and I'd have to add them back. So, more laziness than anything else. I guess the card is maturing enough now that I can safely get rid of them. That might allow me to bump the font size up a bit too which would be nice. Keep the suggestions coming!

Glad this appears to be useful. Thanks much for the sticky too. Hopefully guys can get their TrackIRs all tuned up now! Sure Gremlin, have at it. You're welcome to reference any of my stuff anywhere. The only thing I ask is you don't copy the material itself (only links to it) because I sometimes rewrite parts of things and I would like to know that everybody will see any updates I might make. You might want to pay a visit to my website too just to see if there are other things you might find useful. I've been updating it for several years so there's a bunch of stuff there. Enjoy. Thanks for the kind words folks! -mark

The tips & cheats has been a most informative read. I have plowed through it half a dozen times at this point. Thank you! Something I've been meaning to ask about is the F12 command. I cannot find any reference to that anywhere either in the game or any doc anywhere other than the tips & cheats. It does not appear to do anything (at least for me) in the game either. When I first read about it I thought that was great because in other games I play, I really like having a joystick button I can press that I've programmed to override TrackIR and pop into a "gunsite view" for close in combat. I really wish this F12 command worked as it is perfect. The closest thing I have found is F4 (View Forward) but the problem is it is a "cycle" command and you have to cycle your way to the "Iron site" view which doesn't work at all in what I want to do. Anyway, thanks for any insight on this and thanks again for the great tips & cheats! -mark

Since I help a lot of people with their TrackIR4 devices, I have been developing this document that details all the elements of setup. Thought it might be helpful to share it here. Hope you find it useful. -mark

There are several meanings I suppose depending on where you are from. If you are from New York City or San Francisco, I'm told it means you are a homo-sexual. I don't know that for sure but a guy once told me that (in a rather unpleasant manner). If you are from the south (US), as I am, it simply means you like to stay around your home (i.e., don't get out much). That's certainly the meaning I intended. My wife loves to travel and "see the world." Me, I like nothing better than to go out in my back woods, sit on a stump and smoke a good cigar. To me, that makes me a "homeboy." I've been using this handle since about 1995 so I've heard most all the remarks by now. I figure if it ever starts bothering me, I'm losing my security in who I am. Sort of like that Johnny Cash song "A Boy Named Sue."

Hi Rickity, It is my opinion that the HotKeys in the TIR software should be changed to something that is not used in the game you are playing. Since the TIR software provides the ability to create different profiles, you can easily use different hotkeys for each game. I set my hotkeys this way: Pause - ALT + CTL + Y Center - ALT + CTL + X Precision - ALT + CTL + Z which cause no conflicts with any of the games I play. Since I program all my keys in my controllers, it doesn't matter how complicated the key sequence is. My controllers have never complained about having to send "ALT + CTL + X" If you don't have joystick buttons to spare for TIR, you could easily find single letter commands to change your hotkey to. For example, you could use "B" (Brakes) for your TIR Center command since OFF doesn't use that command. You might, just to be completely safe, want to go into the key assignment section of the game and delete that assignment for Brakes just in the unlikely event that it could cause some conflict.

Please be so kind as to identify which commands I have incorrectly labeled as OFF commands that should be CFS3 only commands. I have read carefully the Tips & Cheats (the primary motivation for doing the card in the first place) and the card is my best effort to sort them out. Most of the organization of the commands have come from flying the game and testing if the command did anything and labeling it appropriately. I freely admit that I may have made some mistakes (Povoloski found a couple) which is one of the reasons I posted this in the first place. I do believe the list to be 100% accurate otherwise I would change or put in question what I'm not sure about. It is my desire that this card be as accurate as possible. My original intent was to completely leave off the CFS3 commands but there seemed to be only a few so I decided to leave them in and just make them "red." Please give me specifics if you know something is wrong. Thanks much! -mark

Some time ago, I started a document and put it up on my web site on how to set up TrackIR. I haven't done anything with it in a while but your interest as well as others has motivated me to get back to it. Expect some significant updates soon. Hopefully there is material there that can help you and other TIR users get the most out of the device. Feel free to email me if you have specific questions too as I'm happy to assist where I can. I wish you the best in setting up your TIR. -mark

Fantastic Polovski! Thank you. Fixed! Keep em' coming. I want to get this right!

Fixed. Thanks again OlPaint for the eagle eye!

Thank you sir! I'll be sure and fix that. Funny really. I saw that, marked it as something I needed to fix, then promptly forgot about it.

I have a new version! I found a few commands I left off. Also, I regrouped things a bit to make it a little more readable. The file is in the same place, all you need to do is click the link again. I'm pretty satisfied with this one so hopefully there won't be any more revisions any time soon.

Hi Mac, I just spoke with Gil. It was good to catch up. I told him I had been in contact with you. He says "hello." The fellow from Chicago is Dragon, real name Jeff. Thank you for posting the picture. I saved that off so I wouldn't lose it. Take care! I'm enjoying this game! -mark

Sure Gremlin, but you may want to wait a week or so until we're sure it is accurate. It is very much a beta at this point and sure to see some revisions. I'm hoping some feedback will come in that will increase my confidence in it's accuracy. Glad people are finding this useful. Please let me know what needs correcting. I'm the most secure about the correctness of the keys themselves as I copied that directly from the files. What I'm least sure of is what should be red and what should be black. I haven't done much with bombers yet in this game so I'm not completely sure how much those bombing commands and multi-engine commands should go "red."The categories I've placed the commands in could possibly use some alterations too. Any help on this is most welcome.

I've been rooting out all the commands and trying to figure out which ones are relevant to OFF. In the process, I've come up with this Command Key Card. Please check it out (feel free to use/edit it) and let me know of mistakes you find. Thanks -mark

An update here! I've been flying QC in a Pfalz D.III against four "Vet" Spad XIIIs. Just as Polovski suggested, they are offering a much better fight than the Aces. I've got the sweaty palms to prove it!

Hi Steve, Sorry about the crappy quality of the screen shots. My originals were much better but got degraded pretty good when I uploaded them to Photobucket. I don't believe I made any changes to those last two pages but I am not entirely sure. I have changed so many things, I'm not quite sure what the defaults are any more. As for using "CFS3.exe." Yup, been there, done that! :yes: I had the same question you did. In fact, my first attempt on this was to use "OFFManager.exe" because that is actually the program you call of course. Apparently, OFFManager is just a wrapper that calls CFS3 because that is what you need to use in the vVidia CP. I know from experimenting. You can trust me on that. Herr Prop, Thanks for the tip on how to set the max FPS. I was looking for how to do that too! I know you weren't talking to me exactly but I appreciate it anyway! <S>!

Yeah, that's a good site and a great place to go to get your process count down on your machine. I haven't visited in a while and did after reading your post. He has XP SP3 updates there so I plowed back through all my services last night. Cleaned up about six more processes. Even did my wife's computer which got rid of a bunch of unnecessary processes as well. Thanks for that. A visit to blackviper is always a good thing to do. Sort of like flossing your teeth.

almccoyjr, Thanks for the inquiry. Actually, it was not a CH problem but rather a problem with OFF not "seeing" my BU0836 interface controller that I installed inside my Pro Throttle that provides me with analog trim. I sent email to OFF support and they didn't have any idea about it either. It's an odd problem and the only game I've encountered that has any problems at all with Leo's board. Oh well, it's not a show stopper as I can work around not having my elevator trim wheel on my throttle. Widowmaker, "Disable validate device" doesn't seem to make any difference at all, at least with my rig. I turn it off because I know my controllers are "valid" and it seems to work with that disabled so I figure I'd leave it that way. Since our machines are similar, please let me know if you discover any improvements over what I've set up. Good luck there! Edit: Oops! Just realized I misread your reply Widow. You were asking me about my selecting the "Disable Write-Only Vertex/Index Buffers." I did that after reading somewhere in the FAQ. Please double check me on that though. I'm sure you can find fixes/improvements if you look closely. <S>!

Hi BeerThirty, You have not specified which TIR unit (TIR3, TIR4 w/trackclip, etc) you have so I will assume it is TrackIR4 with the standard baseball cap reflectors. First, make sure you have the latest TIR driver from NaturalPoint. Setting up a good profile is a slow, tedious process. I spent a couple of months getting mine just the way I wanted it. If you would like to try my profile, you can grab it here. I originally designed it for Aces High (WW2 combat game) but find it works perfectly in OFF. Also, it is very important that you check the lighting and movement in the TrackIR utility. Bring up the "Tracking Window" (where you see the three green dots reflecting back from the reflectors on your head). If you see ANY red anywhere in that window you are going to get erratic behavior. There are two ways to deal with that problem. One is to make your unit less sensitive. This only works to a point. Bring up the "Tracking Settings" window and select the "Light Filtering" box. You can move the slider until the red blotches are gone from the Tracking Window. If you have too much background light (and it doesn't take much) then you will not be able to filter it out enough to help. In that case you will simply have to adjust your environment (shades on the windows, moving your computer around, etc. to get away from the light source. The bottom line is, you must have NO red anywhere in the Tracking Window. If you do, TIR simply WILL NOT WORK! Use the "Heads Window" to watch the "actual" head movement compared against the "amplified" movement. If you are not satisfied with how your head moves, this is the place to fix it by adjusting things using the "curve editor." I recommend you err toward the "aggressive" side. Common sense will try to get you to go less aggressive and "smooth" but I have found just the opposite is really what you want. My profile is very aggressive. You may find it too much so and can tone it down a bit but you REALLY want your head to move around quickly. Trust me, you can learn to control the head movement and in time it will become second nature. I compare it to learning to wear progressive glasses. At first they drove me crazy but after a while I never even thought about it again. Finally, spend a little time reading through the manual. There is not a ton of info in there so you could easily read through it in a half hour. It is well worth spending the time on. TrackIR, IMHO, is the second most important device next to a good joystick that you can own when playing flight sims. I think it's especially important in a WW1 sim as there are so many things blocking your view and everything about flying these crates is visual. Good luck. Contact me directly (my email address is in my sig) if you need further help. I've been around the block a few times with TIR so I'm sure I can help.